Right Where I Belong
by CelticGrace
Summary: After all these years, Vido finally had his daughter by his side. But how long could it last? VERY AU. *NOT ZAEED FRIENDLY* Ch. 1 is an alternate version of Ch. 13 of Izzy and Zani; after that, it becomes its own thing. Spoilers for ME2. Rated M: Language, Violence, Dark Themes
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: After I wrote Ch 27-28 of Izzy and Zani, I started thinking about what would have happened in Ch 13-14 if Vido had just told Izzy the truth instead of producing the fake note.  
Beta: pixelatrix  
Bioware owns all.**

* * *

It had taken some planning, but Vido had finally done it. He had his daughter back. Now all he had to do was convince her to stay.

He smirked as he listened on the comm to Massani and Isadora's turian sniper wondering how they were going to find her. When Massani mentioned that it wasn't likely that she was going to be showing up to help the turian get his revenge, Vido couldn't help but speak up.

"She'll be there," he said smugly.

He could practically feel Massani's anger through the comm. "Goddamn you," the mercenary snarled. "What did you do to her? And don't you fucking dare say she brought it on herself."

"We needed to have a chat," Vido said. "Somewhere where she wasn't going to be distracted by turians and drell and interfering uncles."

"Where is she?" the turian asked.

Vido chuckled. "Don't you worry your scarred little heads about it. Just be at Orbital Lounge at the right time. She'll be there." He disconnected from the comm channel and turned to his daughter, who was gagged and shackled to a chair. Isadora glared at him and mumbled something through the gag that sounded like a string of curses as she struggled against the restraints.

He chuckled. "I told you, sweetheart, I'll let you out of the chair when I know I can trust that we won't have a repeat of San Diego." He flipped a chair around and sat down, resting his arms on the back. "Now. Where were we? Oh yes. How Massani decided I was unfit to raise my own daughter and spent your childhood poisoning your mind with lies."

Isadora mumbled something else and he pulled the gag out of her mouth. "What was that?"

"I said he had a damn good reason," she snarled. "You ignored me my whole life until that night in the alley. And then you fucking shot me!"

"Actually, neither of those things is true. Who told you I shot you? Massani?"

"Yes."

"Didn't you ever wonder then, why there was a third shot?"

She shook her head. "You're an evil jackass. You like killing people."

"I don't, actually."

"Then why did you shoot Zani and the other guy?"

"I told one of my men to go after you when you ran. He decided shooting you was a better solution. So I returned the favor. As for Massani, that's... complicated."

Isadora scoffed. "Yeah right."

"OK, maybe not so much complicated as... long." He sat in silence for awhile, trying to decide where to start. "I admit, I'm not blameless in all this. And, if I'd been in Massani's shoes, I may have even done the same thing. But that doesn't make it right."

Isadora rolled her eyes. "Just get on with it."

"When you were born, when your mother died, I didn't handle it well at all. In fact, I ran. I didn't see you until you were three months old. By the time I came back, Massani had decided I couldn't handle being a parent. He hadn't actually taken you away, so there wasn't anything I could do about it. So, I went back to running the Suns. A few times as you got older, I tried to talk to you or whatever, but Massani was always there in a second to take you away again."

Isadora said nothing, but the hardened expression on her face seemed to crack a bit.

"Eventually, I met Tarak while I was on a job. I brought him back with me and Massani flipped out. I don't know where his hatred of batarians comes from, but it led to the blowout argument that... led to that night in the alley. But that argument wasn't the only reason. I'd finally had enough. I wanted Massani out of the way because I was tired of him interfering all the fucking time, not letting me have any sort of relationship with you."

"You hit me," she said quietly after a moment. "Twice."

"I did. And I'm sorry."

"And you killed Tobias."

"I... no, I didn't. The church was me, but I honestly have no idea what happened to Tobias. That was... an unfortunate coincidence."

"You... you..."

Vido raised an eyebrow. "Yes?"

He could see her resolve starting to crack as she said, "Why did you tell me all this?"

"I just wanted you to see that your uncle isn't the goddamn saint you always thought he was."

"So why did you wait until now?"

"I was going to tell you when you were 18. But then Pritchard screwed that up and you ran off to the military. I couldn't get to you there."

Isadora opened her mouth to say something and shut it. He knew then that he'd gotten through to her. She didn't have any fight left in her. At least not for him. He was positive she'd have strong words for Massani when they met later.

"If I unlock the shackles, will you stay put?"

She nodded.

"Good girl." He got up and released her from the chair. "It's almost time for your meeting with Sidonis."

"Let's do this."

Twenty minutes later, Vido stood in the shadows of the catwalk across from where he'd left Isadora. She was huddled in a corner, talking to Massani. She told him everything. He didn't deny any of it. He did ask her why that alone was enough for her to trust her father.

"Because he didn't lie to me the way you've lied my entire life. And you never even gave him a chance to be a father, whether good or bad. So I'm giving him that chance."

Massani tried to argue with her but she ignored him. "I only came back to help Garrus. After that, I'm gone for good."

Vido watched her work, distracting the target until the shot was set. When the traitor lay dead on the ground, she turned back and looked up at Massani and Vakarian. "So long, Garrus. Watch your back, Massani." She turned and started walking away. Thirty seconds later, a shot rang out and she fell face-first on the ground not far from the growing pool of blood surrounding Sidonis.

Before Vido could react, Massani and Vakarian jumped from the place where they'd been stationed, picked Isadora up and took her away.

* * *

It was another hour before Vido heard from her again, a frantic message about needing a way out. He directed her to meet a shuttle in front of the Dark Star Lounge.

Five minutes later, a very angry Isadora walked up the stairs near the Lounge. Before she'd taken two steps toward the shuttle, a reporter Vido recognized as having interviewed the Commander after she'd become a Spectre stepped into her path. The interview didn't last long. Isadora apparently got impatient with the woman's questions and decked her. On camera.

"That was goddamn beautiful, Isadora," Vido said with a chuckle as she stalked over to him.

She grinned. "Thanks. Dunno which was more satisfying, her or Massani."

Vido raised an eyebrow. "You punched Massani?"

"I did. Then I threw him against a wall."

"No less than he deserved," Vido growled. "I saw him shoot you."

"Why do you think I punched him?"

"Your shoulder OK?"

"Yeah. It'll be sore for awhile but I'll be fine."

Vido nodded toward the shuttle. "You ready to go, little one?"

"Definitely," Isadora said with a smile as she stepped into the shuttle. "I need to get off the Citadel before Massani and Garrus recover. The first thing they'll do is try to track me down using EDI."

Several hours later, Vido and Isadora arrived on Omega. The first thing she insisted on was getting a Blue Suns tattoo. He had to laugh at the location: the back of her left shoulder, just above the spot where Massani's bullet had hit. Though the scar was gone thanks to the Cerberus reconstruction, he knew it was also about where the other bullet had hit, that night in the alley. Just about the time the tattoo was completed, she got a chat request from the Illusive Man himself.

* * *

_Inter Relay Text Chat_

_From: Jack Harper_

_To: Isadora Santiago_

_Location: Unknown_

_18:30 JH: I received an interesting report from Miranda Lawson a few minutes ago._

_18:30 JH: Care to explain, Commander?_

_18:35 IS: Not really, no._

_18:36 JH: Do it anyway._

_18:40 IS: You told me to make sure that my crew and I had prepared ourselves for going through the relay._

_18:41 JH: I did._

_18:42 IS: You told me to make sure any personal issues regarding the crew had been resolved._

_18:43 JH: If you have a problem with Massani, why not kick him off the ship? You didn't need to run away._

_18:44 IS: I didn't. I just wanted a few days to reconnect with my father._

_18:45 JH: Understood._

_18:46 IS: I'll still be working. I may have a lead on Samara's daughter._

_18:47 JH: Keep me posted._

_18:47 User Disconnected._

* * *

"In trouble with anyone yet?" Vido asked when Isadora closed the chat.

She shook her head. "I imagine I'll be getting an earful from James sometime in the near future, but other than that, I'm good for now."

"Is he going to be a problem?"

"If he is, he's _my_ problem to deal with. No revenge killing, Dad."

Vido smirked. "Wouldn't dream of it."

Isadora crossed her arms. "I'm serious. He's my..." She sighed. "My life has been complicated and completely fucked up from day one. I've been abandoned, in one way or another, by pretty much every person I've ever known. Except him."

"I know."

"Fuck. I'm screwed," she muttered a moment later as she looked down at her omni-tool.

"What's wrong?"

She showed him the message she'd just received from Aria: _Afterlife. NOW. _

Vido raised an eyebrow. "What's the problem? I thought she was a friend."

"She is. She's also Massani's... um... 'friend.'"

"I see."

Isadora growled. "Stop. Saying. That."

"Problem, sweetheart?"

"You... men... ugh. I say something, expecting an answer and all I get is that damned 'I see' shit."

Vido chuckled. "Sorry about that."

"Come on. Let's go see what the bitch wants."


	2. Chapter 2

**Thanks for the review, fav and follows :)  
No beta. Any mistakes are my own.  
Bioware owns all.**

* * *

"Such interesting company you're keeping these days, Shepard," Aria said, glancing down at Vido who stood at the bottom of the stairs with Griz. "What happened to that whole Cerberus gig?"

"I'm still under the Illusive Man's thumb," Isadora said, her lip curling in disgust, as she sat on the couch across from the Queen of Omega. "I'm just temporarily rearranging my priorities."

"Does your crew know that?"

"Not... exactly. Massani and Garrus know exactly what happened and I'm sure are pissed the hell off about it. The Illusive Man knows, of course. The rest of the crew believe I simply went off on my own to track down a lead for Samara. Which is half true anyway. I _am_ hoping to track down her daughter while I'm here." Isadora looked at Aria with a curious expression. "You didn't tell Massani I was here did you?"

"Not yet. Tell me something, Shepard. Last I knew, you and Massani were at odds with _him_," Aria said, looking again at Vido. "Not each other. So what changed?"

Isadora shrugged. "I found out Massani's been lying to me my whole life." She held up a hand. "And yes, I asked him myself. He didn't deny a single thing. So here we are. Basically, I'm trying out the life that could have been."

"You know Massani's going to ask if I've seen you."

Isadora sighed. "What do you want in exchange for not telling him, yet?"

Aria chuckled. "Nothing, yet. Let's say sometime in the future, I need your help and you give it, no questions asked. Seem fair?"

"Definitely. And thanks. Just give me a few days, then you can tell him."

"Need anything else?"

"If you could let me know if you see or hear rumors about an Ardat-Yakshi, that would be very helpful, so that I'm not _completely_ lying to my crew."

"Ardat-Yakshi? Damn. You never go for the easy stuff, do you Shepard? What's your plan if you do find her?"

"I'll contact Samara. No way in hell I'm taking that bitch on alone."

* * *

"You're going to have to answer it sometime," Vido said as he and Isadora walked toward the lower levels of Afterlife. Her omni-tool had been beeping with a vidchat request for the past three minutes.

Isadora shook her head. "It can only be one of three people, none of whom I want to deal with until I've had a shitload of booze."

"Three?"

"Massani, my irritatingly nosy XO Miranda and... James."

Vido started to say something but decided against it.

Isadora narrowed her eyes at him. "You almost said 'I see' again didn't you?"

He chuckled. "I did, yes. So who is it that says that so much that irritates you?"

"James does it occasionally, on purpose, to annoy me, but it's mostly Massani."

"Will you just answer the damn thing?"

"Fine." Isadora pushed the button to answer the hail. "What?" she snapped. Her eyes got bigger as she saw who was on the screen. It wasn't Massani, Miranda or even James. It was Admiral Hackett.

"I take it you were expecting someone else, Commander?" the admiral asked casually.

"Yes, sir. Sorry about that. What um... what can I do for you?"

"Where are you?"

"I'd rather not say, sir. Why do you ask?"

"I tried to reach you on the vid-comm on the Normandy and Joker informed me that you were not there. He said he doesn't know where you are."

"He doesn't. I'm doing something for one of my crew."

"I see. I have a question for you, Shepard."

"Sir?"

"Is there some reason you've delayed this long in going to Alchera?"

She sighed heavily. "Cowardice, sir."

"Shepard, you are the absolute last person I would ever classify as a coward. What are you talking about?"

"When you asked me to go, I wasn't ready to face my demons, the ghosts of those lost under my command. Alchera was my greatest failure, sir."

"I'll tell you the same thing I told Joker when he was trying to blame himself for you getting spaced. It wasn't your fault, either of you. I guarantee not a single one of those lost souls would place an ounce of blame on your shoulders."

"And how many times did you have to repeat that before he believed you, sir?"

"I said it at least half a dozen times in the two years you were gone, but I don't think I ever really got through to him."

"For the record, sir, the very first thing I said to him, after getting over the shock of him being with Cerberus, was that it wasn't his fault. He didn't believe me either." She paused for a moment. "I'll... head to Alchera in a couple of days, sir."

"I'll talk to you then, Shepard. Hackett out."

As the call was disconnected, Isadora turned to Vido. "OK, now I _really_ need a drink... or fifty."

He looked at her with concern. "Are you alright?"

She nodded uncertainly.

They walked on in silence downstairs to the bar. Vido got a table near the door while Isadora went to the bar to get their drinks. She came back a couple of minutes later with tumblers of some green drink he had never seen before.

"What's this?" he asked as he took the glass she offered.

She shrugged. "No idea. Bartender said it was good." She drank it all in one gulp. She shook her head for a moment, as if trying to clear her mind and seconds later, her eyes rolled back in her head and she crashed to the floor.

"What the fuck?" He got up and knelt next to her. He touched a couple of fingers to her neck. Her pulse was weak but it was still there. He stood up, carefully picked her up and carried her out into the hall, where he laid her down on the floor and crouched next to her.

"It was that batarian." Vido looked up to see a man standing close by.

"What batarian?"

"That asshole bartender. He hates humans. Holds a grudge against us because of a bunch of batarians that died a couple of years ago on Terra Nova."

"Damn. That was..." Vido trailed off as he looked at his daughter. He knew, from following her progress after she'd become a Spectre, that Isadora had been the one responsible for saving that colony. He looked back at the stranger. "You have an experience with... this?"

"Yeah... couple of friends and I were in here awhile back. One of 'em got a drink from the batarian. Five minutes later, he was puking his guts out. An hour after that, he was dead."

"That's just fucking perfect," Vido muttered. "Maybe she'll be... she just passed out about ten seconds after she drank it."

"Besides my friend, I've also heard stories of lots of others that guy has poisoned. Never heard of that reaction before. She may be OK."

After awhile, the stranger went back into the club and Vido decided, whatever was going to happen to Isadora, it wasn't going to happen in the alley behind Afterlife. He picked her up again and took her to his apartment. He laid her down on the couch and sat on the coffee table to watch her, checking every once in awhile to make sure she was still breathing and her heart was still beating.

Finally, about an hour later, Isadora slowly opened her eyes.

"Oh thank God," Vido muttered as he helped her sit up.

She looked around in confusion. "I thought we were at Afterlife."

"You damn near went to the actual afterlife, again."

"I'm sorry, what?"

"Your drink was poisoned," he said darkly.

"Poisoned."

"Batarian bartender hates humans... apparently because of you."

She rolled her eyes. "Of course. Everything I do eventually comes back to bite me in the ass."

"How do you feel?" he asked, looking at her with concern. She was very pale.

"I've felt better, but don't know that I've ever felt any worse." She shuddered. "Even drinking ryncol before Cerberus made me over never made me feel like this."

"You drink ryncol," he said flatly.

"Now? Yes, all the time. Tequila has no effect anymore. Before, just the once. Wrex and I decided to celebrate not shooting each other on Virmire."

He shook his head. "Isadora, you do realize you are not in fact a krogan, yes?"

She rolled her eyes again. "I am well aware of that. But my biotics plus the cybernetic shit Cerberus stuffed me with gives me a much-too-high alcohol tolerance so I have to drink the strong stuff to feel anything at all."

After a moment, she tried to stand up, but her legs immediately gave out on her and she crashed back down on the couch in a dead faint.

"Where the hell did you think you were going?" Vido asked when she woke again a few minutes later.

Isadora winced as she sat up again. "To kill that fucking bartender."

"Maybe you should wait 'til you can stand properly."

She huffed impatiently. "I don't do 'waiting' well, Dad. Besides, I don't want to give that son of a bitch the chance to poison somebody else."

Vido thought it was a bad idea, Isadora going back to the bar just then. He also knew she'd go whether he went with her or not, and her odds of making it in one piece were significantly higher if he went along. So fifteen minutes later, they were once again at the bar. He stood back as Isadora walked forward, leaned on the bar and asked for a drink. The bartender didn't appear to acknowledge that he'd served her before as he made the drink and set it in front of her.

Instead of taking it, she stood back, crossed her arms and said, "Drink it."

The batarian looked confused... and terrified. "But you..."

Isadora growled. "Drink it or I put a bullet in your skull."

He picked up the glass with a shaking hand and downed the drink. The second he hit the ground, Isadora pulled out her pistol, leaned over the bar and shot him anyway.

Vido smirked as she turned back and walked towards him. "Feel better?"

She grinned. "Yes. Yes, I do. Can I get that drink now?"


	3. Chapter 3

**Thanks for the review :)  
Beta: pixelatrix  
*Possible Trigger Warning***

* * *

Vido kept a close eye on Isadora when he finally introduced her to the new Blue Suns unit on Omega. It wasn't that _he_ didn't trust her, but he knew the reputation that _Commander Shepard_ had among his men. The last time she'd been on Omega, she'd infiltrated the Suns as a means to get to Archangel's base and then switched sides.

The one he didn't entirely trust was Darner Vosque, Tarak's replacement. He was a capable leader, but the way he looked at Isadora gave Vido pause to wonder about him. Apparently he wasn't the only one.

"Where'd you find _him_?" Isadora asked with a barely-contained grimace as Vosque winked at her.

"He was here before, with Tarak," Vido said. "He was one of the few who managed to escape unscathed from the war with Archangel."

"Ya know, I liked Tarak. Sort of. The one time I met him."

"You knew him when you were a kid, Isadora."

She shrugged. "That's what Massani said too. I don't remember him at all. I think... I think after that night in the alley, I repressed all my childhood memories. There's a _lot_ I don't remember."

Vido frowned. "Well, that's depressing."

"I was a kid... I didn't know any other way to cope." She looked down at the whiskey glass in her hands. "Tarak said you... came to the memorial service on the Citadel."

"I did."

"Why?"

"What do you mean 'why'? You're my-"

"Tarak said you went because you..." Her voice trailed off into nothing.

Vido sighed. "He said I thought you'd faked your death, didn't he?"

She nodded, still looking at her glass.

"At the time, would you have believed him if he'd told you the truth?"

"No. Probably would have made it worse anyway." She sighed heavily. "At the time, I was having a hard enough time of dealing with the concept of a memorial service without the thought of you being there, for any reason. Hell, I was having a hard time just dealing with the concept of _not being dead_."

"Used to it yet?"

"I guess. Or... I _was_, and then Hackett had to go and bring up damn Alchera again," she said bitterly.

He put a hand over hers. "Are you going to go?"

She swallowed hard before answering. "I have to. There are still twenty members of the crew... _my_ crew... whose families never got closure. I owe them that much."

* * *

An hour later, Isadora took a shuttle to Alchera, the final resting place of the Normandy SR-1 and so many of her crew. Her father had tried to insist on coming with her, for support or... something, but she told him she needed to make this journey alone.

She spent hours combing through the wreckage, reminiscing about each person whose tag she found, even those she hadn't had a chance to know well. She remembered how she'd spent most of her time swapping war stories or comparing scars with Wrex or chatting with Joker. She found the latter was something she did more and more now that the two of them were with Cerberus. And in that moment, she wished she'd waited just a few more days, until she was back on the SR-2, so Joker could have come with her. She knew she wasn't the only one who needed closure about this place, if her conversation with Hackett had been any indication.

When she'd explored every inch of that godforsaken place, found every tag and even her own N7 helmet (she left it by the monument she'd placed by the Mako), Isadora started back toward the shuttle. She was surprised to find two. The door on the second opened and she groaned when Vosque stepped out.

She ignored him and stepped into her own shuttle. He followed her.

"What the fuck are you doing here, Vosque?" she asked icily as the door closed and they took off their helmets. "I told my dad I wanted to come down here alone."

He chuckled and smiled at her lecherously. "Vido didn't send me, princess," he said as he stepped closer to her and backed her into the wall. "But what the boss doesn't know won't hurt him."

The inside of the shuttle glowed bright blue as Isadora growled. "I guarantee it'll fucking hurt you, jackass."

He reached out and grabbed her wrists as she flung her hands forward. They both went tumbling across the shuttle with the force of her biotic throw slamming Vosque into the back wall. He fell forward and landed on the floor, pinning Isadora underneath him.

"You're gonna have to try harder than that to hurt me, Isadora," he sneered as he sat up and started unbuckling the pieces of her upper armor and throwing them aside. When she struggled against him he pinned her wrists to the floor with one hand as he pulled a pair of cuffs from a pocket of his armor with the other. "I didn't want to have to do this, princess, but you're leaving me with no choice," he said, securing her wrists to the arm of the bench seat closest to them. When he was sure she couldn't fight back with her biotics, he sat on her legs and continued removing her armor piece by piece until she was left in nothing but a tank top and cargo pants.

He sat back on his heels and admired the view. "Mm... very nice. What should I do with you now that I've got you like this?"

* * *

Vido was waiting in the airlock when the shuttle docked on Omega. But it wasn't Isadora who stepped through the doors. It was Vosque.

"Where's Isadora? She should have been back long before now."

Vosque shook his head. "I dunno boss."

"Don't give me fucking 'I dunno,' you son of a bitch!" Vido snarled. "I saw you leave not long after she did."

"And there is the whole of the galaxy I could have gone to, boss. Who says I went to Alchera?"

Vido stepped closer to Vosque, his eyes blazing. "I do, you smug bastard. The _only_ reason you would have gone there is if you followed Isadora. What did you do to her?"

"I didn't-"

Vido slugged Vosque in the chin then picked him up by the collar of his shirt. "Let's go. We're going to see Aria."

"Why?"

Vido said nothing as he dragged Vosque into Afterlife and up to Aria.

"Having problems, Vido?" she asked with a smirk.

"You could say that," he growled. "Can I borrow Anto and Grizz for a few hours?"

"Sure." She motioned for her bodyguards. "What's the trouble?"

"Him," Vido said as he shoved Vosque at Anto. "My daughter has gone missing and I think... _know_ he's the one responsible."

"Interesting," Aria said, glaring at Vosque. "So what do you want us to do with him?"

"Nothing. Just keep him here 'til I get back. Of course, if he happens to get a little beaten up while I'm gone, that would not be a problem," he growled as an afterthought as he walked back down the stairs.

Aria must have said something because a moment later, Grizz was falling into step with Vido as he walked towards the airlock.

"You're gonna need somebody to bring the extra shuttle back," the turian said with a shrug at Vido's questioning look.

* * *

The jump to Alchera wasn't long, a couple of hours at most, but to Vido it seemed an eternity. When the shuttle finally landed, he jumped out and ran to the other. He stepped inside and saw a dent in the back wall. Isadora's black N7 armor was scattered on the floor, her breather helmet and a box sitting on a seat. The box contained the dog tags of the Normandy's missing crew, ready to be sent off to Arcturus.

He slid open the door to the cockpit and swore under his breath. Isadora was unconscious, slumped over in the co-pilot's seat, her wrists handcuffed to each of the chair arms. Vido recognized the mark on her face where Vosque had pistol whipped her, likely what had knocked her out. He wouldn't be surprised if it scarred.

As he unlocked the handcuffs, Grizz stepped into the shuttle. "Need a hand with anything?"

Vido shook his head. "No. You go on ahead with the other shuttle. Tell Aria we'll be back in a couple of hours. I want Vosque alive when I get there."

Grizz nodded. "Got it. Mind if I kick him a few times?"

Vido chuckled darkly. "Be my guest. But... why?"

The turian shrugged. "Shep's a friend. Besides, I've always hated Vosque. Bastard deserves everything he gets."

Vido listened as the other shuttle flew away and settled into the pilot's chair to wait for Isadora to wake up. He didn't have long to wait. About ten minutes after Grizz left, she blinked her eyes and groaned.

"I'm gonna _kill_ that fucking-" She suddenly looked up, saw Vido sitting across from her and lunged at him, her hands outstretched and ready to wrap around his throat.

"Easy, Isadora," he said soothingly as he gently captured both of her hands in his own. "You're OK, sweetheart. No one's gonna hurt you anymore."

She stopped her forward momentum and he let go of her hands as she looked at him again. Her eyes widened in shock as they filled with tears. She collapsed in his lap and buried her face in his shoulder as he wrapped his arms around her and held her tight against his chest.

"You're OK," he said again. "That bastard's never gonna hurt you again."

"Is he dead?" she whispered.

"Not yet. He will be soon. Very, very dead."

She nodded against his shoulder. "Good."


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Unless I get some sort of inspiration to write something further in this, this will be the last chapter (honestly this was never supposed to be more than a one-shot LOL)  
Thanks for the review :)  
Beta: pixelatrix  
Bioware owns all.**

* * *

_Inter Relay Text Chat_

_Location: Unknown_

_From: Vido Santiago_

_To: Garrus Vakarian_

_00:30 VS: You have absolutely no reason to trust me right now, but... I need your help._

_00:35 GV: Why me?_

_00:36 VS: Because my daughter trusts you. And she needs a friend right now._

_00:37 GV: OK... why?_

_00:38 VS: Much too long to get into right now._

_00:39 VS: Short version: she's hurt, in more ways than one, and I need to kill the son of a bitch who did it. I can't leave her alone._

_00:40 GV: Understood. Where and when?_

_00:40 VS: Omega. Now._

_00:41 GV: Done._

_00:42 User Disconnected._

* * *

"It's alright, Daniel. He's a friend," Isadora said quietly when she spotted Garrus trying to figure out how to get past the security mechs in front of Mordin's clinic without shooting them.

"Thanks for everything," she said to the young doctor as she hopped off the bed she'd been resting on. She gave him a kiss on the cheek and watched in amusement as his eyes rolled into the back of his head and he fainted. He woke up a moment later as she and Garrus were lifting him up onto one of the beds. "Sorry about that," she said with a grin.

He waved her away and she walked off with Garrus.

"How'd you get here? No, better question is _why_ are you here?" she asked the turian as she looped her arm through his and they started the short journey from the clinic to Vido's apartment.

"Vido. He said you were hurt."

Isadora winced as she raised an eyebrow. "And you believed him, just like that?"

"Well he wasn't lying," Garrus said pointedly. "You _are_ hurt, Shepard."

"Yes, I know that. I was there," she said bitterly. "The fact remains that _you_ trust my dad. I know _I_ do. But you're not me."

"Hey, remember I was there when you were talking to Massani. I know Vido didn't lie. Sure, I don't like the way he went about getting you to meet with him, but I... trust you on whether or not to trust him."

She frowned in confusion as they stopped in front of Vido's apartment. "I... thanks. I think." She punched in the code to the door and opened it. "I'm gonna take a shower, OK? Make yourself at home. "

* * *

An hour later, the shower was still running and Garrus was getting a little concerned.

"Shepard? Are you OK?" he asked, knocking on the bathroom door.

When he didn't receive a response to that or his next two tries, he hacked the security lock on the door. The shower was indeed still running but Isadora wasn't in it, exactly. She was lying on her side on the floor of the shower in the fetal position, her eyes wide and unfocused.

"Shit," Garrus muttered as he found a towel and bathrobe, turned off the water, which was freezing, and lifted Isadora out of the shower. As he carefully dried her off and wrapped the bathrobe around her, he kept waiting for her to slap him for seeing her naked or something. But she didn't even seem to know he was there.

He cradled her in his arms and carried her into the living room, where he sat down in the chair he'd previously been occupying and settled Isadora in his lap, her head resting on his chest.

Finally about an hour later, Isadora raised her head and looked around. "Garrus?" He watched her as she looked around, looked down at the bathrobe, realized _exactly_ what that meant and then looked back up with narrowed eyes. "You..."

And then she slapped him. He grinned. "Thank you."

"I'm sorry. Did you just _thank_ me for slapping you, Garrus?"

"Well, you've been kind of _out of it_ for a couple of hours, Shepard. I've been waiting for some sign that you were back to normal, if only a little bit."

"Oh." She went quiet again and put her head back on his chest. After awhile she said, "So. You saw me naked."

"I did."

"And?" She sat up a little and looked at him.

"And... James is a very lucky man. Not that I was... looking. In case you snapped out of it and beat the hell out of me," he said with a wink.

Isadora frowned. "About that... James, I mean."

"What about him?"

"Not that I'm not happy you're here, Garrus, but... why'd my dad call you instead of him?"

"One, despite the fact that we all know James would drop everything in a split second to see you, Vido knows you would kill _both_ of them for putting James' career in danger."

Isadora grinned. "Oh yeah."

"And two, if by some chance James had been available anyway, Vido would still be talking to him, trying to convince him that it wasn't some trick or something. As far as I know, James still believes the company line of 'Vido bad, Massani good.'"

She snorted with laughter and nearly fell off his lap. "Thanks for that. I really needed that laugh today." She looked down at her robe again. "Alright, I need to get dressed. This sitting around in a bathrobe shit doesn't work for me."

Garrus waited in the living room while Isadora went into her bedroom and changed. Not thirty seconds had gone by however before he heard a string of inventive curses, a loud crash and then a muffled "Um... can I get a little help, please?"

He ran into the bedroom and stifled a laugh. Isadora was sprawled face-first on the floor, one foot caught in the laces of one of her over-turned combat boots.

"I fell," she said as he gently picked her up.

"Yes, I can see that, Shepard," he said, his mandibles twitching into a smirk. "I thought all military types were the same, with the uber-neatness. What the hell were your boots doing in the middle of the floor?"

Isadora scoffed as she pulled on her clothes while holding onto Garrus. "You're one to talk. I've seen the way you keep your space and you're just as military as I am, Vakarian."

He ignored her comment. He was looking at the cut on her face and the bruises on her arms. He'd seen them before, in the bathroom, but he'd been more concerned with getting her covered and warm than with her actual injuries.

"Who was it, Shepard?" he asked quietly. "Who the hell did this to you?"

Before Isadora could say anything, they heard the front door open and the sounds of a _very_ loud argument. They started for the living room, but the first step she took with her right foot caused Isadora to let out a loud squeak of pain.

"I must have twisted my ankle when I fell," she said as she clung to Garrus' arm to keep from falling over. "It didn't hurt like that before now."

"Here," he said as he crouched down with his back to her. "I'll give you a lift." She climbed on his back and he carefully put his arms under her thighs (he remembered there were bruises there too) as he walked the short distance to the living room. He stopped dead in his tracks when he saw Vido and Zaeed were standing in the middle of the room, guns drawn, yelling at each other.

"What the everloving fuck is going on here?" Isadora snarled as she jumped down from Garrus' back and hobbled into the room.

Vido and Zaeed stopped and turned to stare at her, their guns still raised. Vido lowered his immediately, Zaeed did not.

"Don't know how he got here, but he followed me," Vido said. He looked straight into Isadora's eyes. "It's done."

"And?" Isadora asked, looking away to focus her attention onto her uncle's gun.

"It was not quick and painless. That's all I'm saying," Vido said firmly. "You don't need to know the details, little one." He reached into his pocket. "By the way, I believe these belong to you," he added as he walked the few steps between them and handed her her old melted dog tags.

"Where?" she asked as she slipped the chain over her head and threw her arms around his neck.

"Goddamn bastard was _wearing_ them, like a fucking trophy," he muttered as he wrapped his arms around her.

Zaeed cleared his throat angrily and Isadora spun around to face him, her back against Vido's chest. "What?" she snapped. "What the hell are you..." she looked at Garrus. "What the hell is he doing here, Garrus?"

The turian looked as confused as she felt. "I honestly have no fucking clue. I guess he must have followed me."

"Know what? I don't care." She looked at Zaeed again. "Get out."

"Excuse me?" the mercenary growled.

"I said get out! And get the fuck off my ship."

Zaeed chuckled darkly. "You can't kick me off. My deal is with the Illusive Man, not you, baby girl."

"Don't you _dare_ call me..." she snarled as her hands started glowing blue. "Get. Out!"

And then the world exploded.

The force of Isadora's biotics threw Zaeed violently against the wall behind him and his gun went off. On the other side of the room, Isadora and Vido were thrown against the wall behind them as well. The two men were knocked out and Isadora fell to her knees, trembling.

Garrus ran over to her. "Spirits. Are you OK, Shepard?"

"I... I'm... shit." She brought up her hand, covered in blood. "I think it only grazed me though. I don't think it's serious."

He frowned at the evil glint in her eyes. "What the hell? Shepard? You've got that look on your face that says you're planning something. Something that's going to come back to bite you in the ass someday."

"Yeah, well, when has that ever stopped me, Garrus?" she said with a wink. She grimaced as she drew her hand across her side and carefully smeared a bit of blood on Vido's armor.

Garrus shook his head. "Massani is never gonna fall for that," he hissed.

"Maybe, maybe not, but we'll never know unless we try."

Moments later, Zaeed started awake and Isadora threw herself across her father's chest, as if grieving. Garrus put his hands on her shoulders to _console_ her. Zaeed got up and started towards them.

"Massani, if you know what's good for you, you'll get out of here now," Garrus warned.

Isadora spoke with her head against Vido's chest. "You've finally done what you set out to do, Massani. You killed Vido. That's what you wanted isn't it?" she said, her voice dripping with venom. "Just... go. Get out. If I ever see you again, I swear to God, I will kill you."

Zaeed said nothing and a few moments later, the door swished open and he was gone.

"Isadora Margarita Santiago, you are the single most devious person I've ever met in my entire life," Vido muttered.

Isadora grinned as Garrus helped her sit up and she rested with her back against the wall. "So. I seem to have an extra place on my ship," she said, turning her head to look at Vido. "Wanna help me save the galaxy?"


End file.
